Bernard Verlhac (aka Tignous) is among the victims of the attack (Picture: AFP/Getty)

‘About a half an hour ago two black-hooded men entered the building with Kalashnikovs (guns),’ Benoit Bringer said. ‘A few minutes later we heard lots of shots,’ he said, adding that the men were then seen fleeing the building.

Videos have emerged from the scene in which repeated shots could be heard, while others cower for safety on a rooftop.

In another video, footage appears to show a police officer getting shot at close range, before two masked men dressed in black get into a car.

One excerpt, from journalist Martin Boudot on a building located near the magazine headquarters, appears to contain footage of one of the men shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ – meaning God is the greatest.

Witnesses at the magazine headquarters have described the scene on social media.

There are multiple deaths (Picture: AFP)

French President Francois Hollande visited the scene today (Picture: AP)

Police officers and firefighters gather in front of the offices (Picture: AFP)

A police official, Luc Poignant, said he was aware of one journalist dead and eightinjured, including three police officers.

‘It’s carnage,’ Poignant told BFM TV.

A firebomb attack gutted the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo in November 2011 after it put an image of the Prophet Mohammad on its cover.

Some workers were pictured fleeing to the roof of the building as the siege continued.

Prime Minister David Cameron has condemned the attack on a French satirical weekly in which 11 people died, saying: ‘The murders in Paris are sickening. We stand with the French people in the fight against terror and defending the freedom of the press.’

A history of controversy

The French newspaper Charlie Hebdo’s staple is to be provocative – poking fun at popes, presidents as well as the Prophet Muhammad.

The satirical weekly attacked Wednesday by gunmen, killing at least 12, has a history of drawing outrage across the Muslim world with crude cartoons of Islam’s holiest figure. The magazine’s offices were firebombed in November 2011 after it published a spoof issue that ‘invited’ Muhammad to be its guest editor and put his caricature on the cover.

A year later, the magazine published more Muhammad drawings amid an uproar over an anti-Muslim film. The cartoons depicted Muhammad naked and in demeaning or pornographic poses. As passions raged, the French government defended free speech even as it rebuked Charlie Hebdo for fanning tensions.

(Picture: Rex)

The small-circulation weekly leans toward the left and takes pride in making acerbic commentary on world affairs through cartoons and spoof reports.

‘We treat the news like journalists. Some use cameras, some use computers. For us, it’s a paper and pencil,’ the Muhammad cartoonist, who goes by the name Luz, told The Associated Press in 2012. ‘A pencil is not a weapon. It’s just a means of expression.’

Chief editor Stephane Charbonnier, who publishes under the pen name ‘Charb,’ has also defended the Muhammad cartoons.

‘Muhammad isn’t sacred to me,’ he told The AP in 2012. ‘I don’t blame Muslims for not laughing at our drawings. I live under French law. I don’t live under Quranic law.’

Islam is not alone in being singled out by Charlie Hebdo’s satire. Past covers include retired Pope Benedict XVI in amorous embrace with a Vatican guard; former French President Nicolas Sarkozy looking like a sick vampire; and an Orthodox Jew kissing a Nazi soldier.

The magazine occasionally publishes investigative journalism, taking aim at France’s high and mighty.

Charlie Hebdo has come under pressure ever since its 2011 Muhammad issue. Its website has been hacked, and Charbonnier has needed police protection. Riot police guarded the magazine’s offices after the 2012 issue hit the stands.